United Kingdom

American Football

Figure Skating: US network NBC acquired the rights for US figure skating in a three-year deal with the US Figure Skating Association, covering the national championships and the international Skate America…
Football

Football: Pay-operator Premiere acquired the Austrian pay-television rights for the top two domestic leagues, the Bundesliga and the Zac Erste division, in a three-year deal from 2007-08 to 2009-10
Athletics

Basketball: Spanish commercial broadcaster La Sexta acquired the rights to this year’s basketball World Championships in a deal with Fiba, the international basketball federation.

Football

Football: Spanish Primera Liga champions FC Barcelona agreed a long-term deal with the Mediapro agency which guarantees the club at least €1bn (£685m) for its domestic and international television rights for the seven years from 2006-07 to 2012-13.

Football

The Premier League’s £171.6 million deal with the BBC takes the league’s audiovisual-rights income to more than £680 million.

Football

Pay-television operator British Sky Broadcasting is considering launching a Sky Sports channel on the digital-terrestrial service Freeview.

Athletics

Rugby union: UK pay-broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting acquired the exclusive live rights to European club rugby’s Heineken Cup competition in the UK and Ireland in a four-year deal, from 2006-07 to 2…
Football

Fifa has agreed or is in the process of agreeing deals for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in the top five European television countries
Boxing

Horseracing:  UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 signed a one-year deal to continue its horseracing coverage in 2006 after the horseracing and betting industries agreed to pay the channel £4.95m (€7.4m). 

Football

Football:  Norwegian commercial channel TV2 an telecoms company Telenor acquired the rights to all Norwegian football in a record NKr1bn (£85m/€127m) deal (page 1)

Pay-television operators in four of the five top European television markets reported growing numbers of subscribers

Football

Setanta, the pay and pay-per-view company, has emerged as a major player in the UK and Irish markets

Two main lawyers involved in billion-dollar deal between International Cricket Council and ESS are moving on to new positions
Australian Rules Football

Ice hockey: Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC retained the rights for live coverage of the US National Hockey League in a six-year deal that will keep its flagship Hockey Night in Canada programme…
Football

Football: UK commercial operator ITV and pay-broadcaster Setanta acquired the rights for the FA Cup knock-out competition and England national team matches in a four-year, £425m (€623m) deal with the En…
Boxing

Viewer numbers fall but audience share increases during unseasonably hot weather
Cricket

Tennis: Asian broadcaster Ten Sports sublicensed coverage of the finals of this year’s French Open tournament to rival pay-operator Zee Sports.

Football

Football: Spanish free-to-air broadcaster Cuatro sublicensed the non-exclusive rights to at least seven matches from the upcoming World Cup from rival broadcaster La Sexta in a deal worth €20m (£14m).